The Gray Lady's Double Standard

Of course not. Ah, but sex sells, some will say. Sex is different. Sex gets
people all worked up.

That's true, of course, but that's not how the Times claims to operate.
There are, alas, no British-tabloid topless "page three girls" in the New
York Times.

Then there's the question: Why McCain? After all, somewhat similar
allegations about recent Democratic nominees were precisely the sort of
thing that the Times scrupulously avoided as trash journalism. And the
Times' attitude toward Bill Clinton's various sex scandals was hardly one of
unbridled enthusiasm.

During those years, the Gray Lady published many, many articles lamenting
the fever of "sexual McCarthyism" in American politics. It seems that such
concerns are unwarranted if the subject is a Republican.

But the most curious thing remains that endorsement. The editors of the
Times argued that the best Republican in the field was John McCain. Those
same editors knew of these allegations. They clearly did not think such
innuendo was important enough for them to hedge their support for the
Arizona senator.

Of course, these very liberal editors were offering merely a nominal
endorsement of the least objectionable Republican by their lights. This is a
very loaded grading system, akin to designation as the best Oktoberfest in
Orlando.

But still, McCain was their choice, even though they knew of these
allegations and, given what we know about what went on behind the scenes,
believed they were true.

Presumably the argument went something like this. There's no direct proof
that the sexual relationship ever existed and, even if it did, marital
infidelity isn't our business. And besides, if true, the underlying implied
impropriety - writing a routine letter to the FCC - is hardly a serious
transgression. McCain could have done this for plenty of reasons, including
because he thought it was the right the thing to do. In short, his overall
qualifications dwarf the allegations in this story.

Assuming I'm right, it's telling that this was a strong enough argument for
picking McCain as "the best choice for the party's presidential nomination,"
but nowhere near strong enough to prevent the Times from using the same
information to destroy that same Republican once he'd all but sewed up the
nomination.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online,and the author of the book The Tyranny of Clichés. You can reach him via Twitter @JonahNRO.
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